Voices worth heeding on gun control

Published 6:01 pm, Friday, March 8, 2013

The gun control issue has no shortage of passionate, occasionally strident, voices on all sides of the debate.

And that is as it should be, though the stridency is something we can all do without, both as a way to advance the debate and to try to preserve civility in all our undertakings.

The average non-gun-owning citizen might at times feel overwhelmed or confused in the storm of testimony offered in legislative hearings, whether in Washington or Hartford, on the myriad kinds of weapons, magazines and ammunition available on the market and the types that various pieces of legislation would make illegal.

The process is under way in Connecticut, with Gov. Dannel Malloy pushing the matter. He appointed a Sandy Hook Advisory Commission and charged it with coming up with recommendations on gun control, school security and mental health issues.

The state Legislature, of course, is also working to come up with recommendations, though it was disappointing in the extreme to see the Bi-Partisan Gun Violence Prevention Working Group break down along quite partisan lines on some of the main issues, including an assault weapons ban.

Through the din, though, we're persuaded by the voices of various police officials, including the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association (CPCA), who support greater control.

Police officers, after all, are the people most likely to have to face the firepower produced by modern weaponry.

The CPCA supports a range of modifications to the way we do business on guns, including a review of state law to explore the ban of assault weapons, magazines that accept more than 10 rounds of ammunition, and banning certain types of ammunition.

These are professionals who deal with weapons for a living, and their objective take on the problem should carry maximum weight with the legislators who have the final decision.

Finally, last week it became perfectly clear that the citizens of Connecticut, despite the totally out-of-touch posturing of some members of the legislative working group, want action.

A Quinnipiac poll showed that by identical 68 to 28 percent margins, Connecticut residents want to expand the definition of assault weapons to include the gun used at Sandy Hook and want a ban on high-capacity magazines.